Rescue My Heart

Chapter 8.5

Clover

Jackson was heading over.

Not another thought escaped, except one: to cower behind Logan. The only way I could make my legs move.

Logan spared me a glance, confused before he turned to Jackson. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something, but it seems like you have company, so I don't want to disturb."

His eyes shifted to me while my spine tingled. He clearly recognized me, even though we hadn't interacted in a while. The teachers made sure to put us in separate classes so our schedules wouldn't crash. Besides, the last time he saw me, I had blonde hair and a big baby face.

My hand gripped Logan's arm. The other hand went to his shirt, clutching the back of it. I acted on pure instinct.

"Who is this? Your new girlfriend?" Jackson asked, pretending like he had no idea who I was.

Not that I wasn't doing the same.

If Logan only knew what Jackson had done to me, then he would have understood my change of attitude.

Jackson had shaved off half of his hair. He probably did that to make an excuse for his already balding head. He smoked and drank and did drugs too much. No wonder he had health problems. He'd attempted to portray his style as a buzzcut, but it looked hideous. His malicious green eyes could make you lie in wait of horrors. He was also gym shark. His polyester dark green shirt looked like it was about to rip.

"Hi, I'm Jackson," he reached his hand out for a shake.

Oh, hell no!

My skin prickled as I hid further behind Logan. His shirt was going to rip from my nails, but nothing could prevent the alarm bells in my ears.

My dread didn't go over his head, for he slapped Jackson's hand away.

"What are you doing?"

Jackson held up his hands. "Sorry. Just wanted to be nice. She is your girlfriend, right?"

Logan's reached for my hand. "No, she's not."

The first reaction was to step away and leave him. But if you say a bad statement while touching that person, it sure must mean something. Unless he was acquaintances with Jackson's and knew of his tendencies, then he could've been lying.

"It doesn't seem like it."

"I said she is nothing. Do you really want to ruin this for me and keep talking about this right now?"

He held onto me even tighter, and that answered every doubt.

I questioned my next plan carefully before I placed my hand on his back. Immediately, tension freed his muscles until his shoulders slumped.

"Okay fine, sorry. I'll see you later."

After Jackson's absence and the wandering looks from students, I chose to drag him out into a more secluded hallway. We couldn't afford any more attention since someone might've ran their mouth about my past.

"I didn't want him to touch you."

My head snapped up, but he was looking at the floor. "Why not?"

"He's not a nice guy. I didn't introduce you two because I know what he's like. You don't want to know him."

He was literally speaking to the expert on Jackson.

"I don't want to know anyone but you," the words popped out.